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write to a high school in Portsmouth, Va., and ask both questions. A letter came back promptly, and, in addition to the information we sought, there was sent us a plan of the exposition and some pictures of historic interest. These were posted on our bulletin board for the benefit of all, and we corrected the mistake in our textbook.

This letter which we received from Virginia will be the beginning of a Correspondence Club. Our school is on the Bunker Hill battle-ground. When we have finished studying about the battle and have collected all the historical material possible, the classes will incorporate what they have gathered and worked out in a letter illustrated by sketches and photographs taken by our Camera Club. The first copy of this will be sent to the Portsmouth High School. Others will be sent to schools in New York City, Detroit, and London, England. These schools in turn will send us letters describing places of historic interest in their neighborhoods.

We have a Library Club also, which has taken upon itself the work of beginning a students' history of Charlestown. There are few pupils who do not write well when they are writing for a purpose.

There is much more that I might say in regard to this method of carrying on our work, but enough has been said to show that work based upon the social idea can be carried on even with our present school conditions in a way, not only successful and valuable, but also quite delightful.

Pupils are glad to work when they know that whatever they are able to accomplish by themselves will be appreciated in school. In searching for material, they ransack their attics and libraries, and learn to know what there is at home better than they ever did before. They talk about their work with the family and friends, who also contributed items of interest, souvenirs of travel, and sometimes relics of value. Last week a friend loaned one of our boys a volume of London magazines published in 1776. The boy read us a thrilling account of the Boston Massacre from it.

In closing, let me say that I have recently heard from three

teachers, who, though strangers to me, became interested in our work last year and tried the same method. The teacher in Detroit sends word of excellent results; one in the Medford High School says that one class of boys which was not at all interested in English history before carried the work along with life and spirit when it got a chance to conduct the class itself. I quote from the letter of the New York teacher. She says:

The class of older girls, which I had dreaded, had a life about it that I had never been able to arouse. The girls were full of interest in the subject, and I found they loved to talk provided I would give them a chance, and I did learn to keep my lips closed more and more. I had never realized before how much talking I had done.

As a final word, may I make a plea that we give our boys and girls a chance to work in ways more natural to them; that we learn to know them better; that we may keep their school-life so keenly in touch with the life outside that they may feel that both are vital parts of the social world in which they live?

AN INDIAN VILLAGE IN THE FIRST GRADE

BEATRICE CHANDLER PATTON

Training School, Los Angeles State Normal School

The school life of the twentieth-century child is complex in character and rich in opportunity for self-expression. The old limitations have been set aside, and his greatest need is unity of thought and purpose. Subject-matter can no longer be arbitrarily chosen nor fitfully pursued, but must center around some unifying idea. This unifying idea must be suggestive enough to admit of expression through many mediums; it must make a demand upon the whole power of the child; it must dominate his thought, so that he will use his reading, writing, and handwork as tools with which to express his ideas.

The Indian village set up in our sand tray by the children of the first grade has met these needs admirably and proved a source of endless delight. Longfellow's Hiawatha, with its vivid pictures and rhythmical measure, was taken as a basis of work, and, aside from the fascination which the story of the Indian boy holds for little children, three important points were emphasized: (1) the opportunity afforded for dramatic representation; (2) the ingenuity and skill developed by the constructive work; (3) the ease with which symbols were mastered and a reading vocabulary acquired.

A series of progressive lessons in history, reading, language, and literature was presented and met with hearty response from the children. The story of the Indian boy excited their sympathy, stimulated their imagination, and culminated in effective dramatic play. They followed every phase of the Indian boy's life with eagerness, and, in the dramatization of it, put in their own original conceptions, and expressed them in their own terms. With Hiawatha as the ideal type, the children were told in childlike fashion of the industrial side of Indian life in California. The Indian home was the point of departure, and

included the problems of food, clothing, and shelter in a local environment. Definite topics resulted, such as the kind of home, its equipment, the occupations of the men and women, and the play and work of the Indian boys and girls. The children delighted in the comparison with their own home-life and were quick to seize upon their own advantages. They lived in the Indian world for the time being. Tepees were decorated and set up, canoes built and launched upon the water, clay kettles swung upon sticks, and corn planted. The village needed to be inhabited, and a touch of reality was added by making clay figures of men and women in their various occupations. The men were represented smoking the peace pipe, hunting the wild animals, or fishing along the streams; while the Indian women were set up in front of their wigwams grinding corn in a mortar, or out on the hills gathering firewood, with the little Indian babies strapped upon their backs. The Indian costumes excited great interest, too, and the children worked out some original designs, repeating simple units and putting in the vivid Indian coloring with good effect.

The children's sympathies were aroused, and their minds were full of vivid images; consequently the symbols of the words which were needed to express them were quickly and easily acquired. The reading lessons were spontaneous and full of interest, and the children attacked their problems with enthusiasm and determination. With the youngest group, the lessons were presented entirely from the blackboard, and a limited amount of the material was used. A definite vocabulary was kept in mind, and sufficient amount of repetition was provided to impress the symbols presented. With the older group, who had already a fair vocabulary, the possibilities were much larger. The children retold in short, clear sentences what they had learned in the history hour, or described in simple language what they had made during the manual-training period. These short sentences, childlike in form, but full of meaning to the class, were written on the blackboard and used as reading lessons for the day.

The following are some of the reading lessons which were

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